It seems another familiar name to AEW fans will be departing All Elite Wrestling. Previous reports indicated that Marko Stunt’s contract was set to expire in May, and Fightful Select just confirmed that Stunt will be leaving the company. The report states that Stunt received a call from AEW Talent Relations’ Christopher Daniels and was informed that the company would not be renewing his contract. The reasons given were budget cuts and a large roster, and the report states that the split was amicable and the conversation went well.
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Stunt’s contract doesn’t actually end until May, but looking at the past several months as an indication, it doesn’t seem like fans will see him on AEW television before he leaves the company. Stunt hasn’t been featured on TV for several months, as he sustained a concussion in October, but even after he recovered, he never returned to television.
The report also states that Daniels mentioned plans being changed for Jurassic Express, but we’re not sure what that actually means. Are they splitting up the Tag Team soon or did they just decide on a run without Stunt by their side? Either could be the case, though it could also be a different plan that will become more clear in the months ahead.
The first wave of AEW contracts have come up for renewal, and while some have been renewed, AEW President Tony Khan has stated that they can’t renew everyone (via TV Insider). Khan said that he kept a lot of people under contract even if he wasn’t using them on television during the pandemic, which happened through AEW’s first and second years, but with a host of wrestlers coming into the company and only so much television to feature talent, not every contract will be renewed.
“When we started a lot of people had contracts that were a couple of years long and a lot of them are coming up. I have really tried hard to be very considerate of the people on the roster, especially going through the pandemic. That encompassed a long period of time where we were still in our first year of television and going into our second. I kept a lot of people under contract even though I wasn’t necessarily using them on television because I wanted them to still have paying work, which was hard to come by for wrestling during the pandemic where there weren’t any independent shows. Really only two places were running and the other place was cutting people left and right. I did want to give some job security to people. Now with so many wrestlers coming in, I can’t renew all the contracts. I’ve had to make some tough choices based on ability, fan response, or both. I try to maintain the best roster I can for the company and fans.”
There’s no indication on where Stunt will go next, but we’ll keep you posted as more information becomes available.
